Single post in A guide to battles

Have you ever wanted to get into battling in PFQ but not quite sure where to start? Sparing is very different from the main series games. There are no abilities. All battles are one on one. Your pokemon chooses moves from types and damage categories and there are no status moves. This is a guide to help you get into sparing in PFQ. Part I : Selecting a pokemon to train When battling there are 3 different stat categories you should be aware of. Damage, Attack/Special Attack: This determines how much damage your pokemon will do. No matter what you do your pokemon will sometimes use it's weaker attack stat. Protection, Health/Defense/Special Defense:This determines how much damage a pokemon can endure before fainting. Speed:Determines turn order in battle. Sometimes when a battle is close speed will determine who attacks first and win. An example battle of speed determining the winner can be seen here. When choosing a pokemon to use you first want to decide what species. All pokemon have different strengths and weaknesses as determined by their base stat total and typing. What pokemon you use is up to you though battles are determined by who has more health after 5 rounds. Some places ban or limit the number of megas and legendaries you can use so remember that before training a team of only megas and legendaries. A pokemon being a mega or a legendary does not mean it's more powerful than anything that isn't one. Look at mega Mawile for instance. It has a base stat total of 480 when something like Delphox has a base stat total of 534. Slaking is one of the best non-mega non-legendary pokemon out there. This beast has 670 base stat total, more than many mega pokemon and some legendaries. Without abilities on PFQ there is nothing holding it back. Slaking has a sky high attack and health. Slaking's main weakness is it's 65 base special defense leaving it weak to special attacks. Arguably another weakness is having a speed of just 100, however it still matches or out speeds a lot of pokemon. After Slaking the pokemon with the next best base stat total that isn't a legendary or mega is Wishiwashi's school forme. It has high attack and defense stats however it has low speed and health. After that are all of the Pseudo legendary pokemon. This is not counting normal PFQ fakemon or exclusives as I do not have access to a list of their base stat totals. As for the mega and legendary pokemon both mega Mewtwos, mega Raquaza, mega Grintina, Mega Ho-oh, Mega Lugia, Primal Dialga and Primal Palkia have the highest BST overall with 780 BST. After you chose a species of pokemon you want to train you have to find a good one of that species. This means you want to find one with a good nature and decent IVs. Natures give a 10% boost to a stat and a 10% decrease to another stat. There are also natures that give a boost to no stat. Generally you do not want a nature that hinders the pokemon's higher attack stat. You usually want a nature that boosts the pokemon's higher attack stat or speed though the exact best nature depends on your preferences and the pokemon it's self. As for IVs it is always best to have the highest IVs possible. The maximum IVs a pokemon can have in a stat is 31. A guide for breeding for IVs can be found here. While it's good to aim for good IVs it's not the end of the world if you don't use a perfect IV pokemon seeing as most people don't use perfect IV pokemon. However someone who does use a perfect IV pokemon will have an advantage over someone who doesn't. What is more important, natures or IVs? What does this show? A 0IV Sawk with an attack boosting nature does more damage than a 31IV Sawk with an attack hindering nature. A 31IV Sawk with a neutral nature does a little more damage than a 0IV Sawk with an attack boosting nature, and that a 31IV Sawk with an attack hindering nature does about as much damage as a 0IV Sawk with a neutral nature. Part II: Training the Pokemon There are three steps to readying a pokemon for battle. Step 1: EV training EV training can be done in the training hall of the dojo. First to get bags put a pokemon into the training hall then click and collect the bags they get. Once you have bags click begin training and select which bags you want to use on your pokemon. Information on training bags can be found here. A pokemon can have up to 510, and it is a good idea to give them all 510 evs before sending them into spars. Step 2: IQ training This part is easy. Just simply feed your pokemon gummis until it's IQ stat maxes out. Gummis can be obtained from boxes. When giving pokemon gummis their IQ will boost the most by being given gummis of their type, followed by gummis that are super effective against their type. On average it takes about 20-21 gummis of the same type to fully IQ train a pokemon. Step 3: Gems Gems allow you to attack outside of their type. By giving a gem to a pokemon, they can use attacks of the same type the gem is. Generally you want to give pokemon a gem of a type that will cover their weaknesses. During certain battles you might want to change the gem your pokemon is holding to a type that you know will be super effective against your foe's next pokemon. However some places ban gems so be sure to take them off before challenging those places. And after that you have a pokemon that is ready to be used in battle. Part III : Battle Sparing in pokefarm is for the most part based on two things, overpowering the opponent and prediction. Overpowering the pokemon basically comes down to using the stronger pokemon. By completing the steps in part II your pokemon has an advantage over pokemon who weren't put through these steps. The second step is prediction. By guessing what pokemon your foe will use next you can gain the upper hand. Try to avoid using pokemon you think will be weak to your opponent's pokemon and try to send in one you think will have super effective attacks against your opponent's pokemon. You can also change the gem your pokemon is holding if you think it will be super effective against your foe's pokemon. That's it for this guide. Hope this helped you get into sparing on PFQ! If you have any questions or suggestions for improving this guide please post them here.